Dave Mirra, whose perilous feats on a BMX bike led to 24 medals at ESPN’s XGames and helped make freestyle BMX a bigmoney spectacle, was found dead on Thursday night in Greenville, S.C. He was 41.
The Greenville police said Mirra died from what appeared to be a selfinflicted gunshot. His body was discovered in his truck in the driveway of a friend’s house, where he had been visiting, they said.
Freestyle BMX riders perform tricks on lightweight bicycles on the ground, on ramps and rails and while soaring through the air. Mirra rode with an aggressive but fluid style that made the most difficult maneuvers appear effortless.
He won gold medals 14 times at the XGames, the preeminent showcase for action sports, earning a medal at every Games from 1995 to 2008. In 2000 he became the first person to land a double backflip in a competition and went on to win a gold medal when he landed one at the XGames that year. For many years he had more XGames medals than any other athlete.
Along with contemporaries like Jay Miron, who is credited with landing the first double backflip, in the mid1990s, though not in competition, and Mat Hoffman, whose bicycle company, Hoffman Bikes, sponsored Mirra for part of his career, he helped expand BMX beyond its core audience.
His competitive success led to endorsement deals with Slim Jim, Adidas and DC Shoes, which gave him a pro model sneaker? two video games? and a bicycle line called Mirraco. He also hosted the MTV reality series “Real World/Road Rules Challenge” (now “The Challenge”) in 2004 and 2005.
But competing at the highest level in such a dangerous sport took a toll. Mirra had his spleen removed, lacerated his liver and frequently twisted his knees and sprained his ankles.
Mirra told the XGames website in 2013 that the injuries contributed to his decision to retire from competition. In recent years he raced rally cars and competed in Ironman triathlons.
Mirra’s medal record was broken by the Brazilian skateboarder Bob Burnquist in 2013. He is second only to Burnquist for total medals and the skateboarder and snowboarder Shaun White for most gold medals won at the XGames.
David Mirra was born on April 4, 1974, in upstate New York, growing up in Chittenango. His first serious sponsors were GT Bicycles and Vision Street Wear in 1989, when he was 15.
He turned professional for Hoffman Bikes in 1992. The next year his career nearly ended when a drunk driver struck him as he was crossing a street, leaving him with a fractured skull, a blood clot in his brain and a broken shoulder. After recovering, he signed a new deal with Haro and won his first XGames medal in 1995.
His survivors include his wife, Lauren, and their daughters, Mackenzie and Madison.
CREDIT: New York Times: by By DANIEL E. SLOTNIK
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